University leadership training starts on Dec. 27

November 14, 2012, 10:40 pm

by Dasun Edirisinghe

The much-delayed leadership training programme for the next batch of university entrants would start on Dec. 27 at 25 centres countrywide, Secretary to the Higher Education Ministry Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne said.

He told The Island that the duration of the programme had to be reduced from three weeks to two due to an additional 5,000 students being added to the next intake on a Court order.

This year the leadership training programme had to be postponed twice, in May and November, due to university teachers demanding that it be delayed until they submitted their recommendations.

Dr. Navaratne said that the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) had finally informed them that they would submit their proposals from next year and this time the programme could go as scheduled.

"We planned to start this year’s leadership training programme in three batches consisting of 9,000 students each," Dr. Navaratne said.

He added that this time 26,721 students would undergo the leadership training programme in military and police establishments countrywide from Dec. 27 to Jan. 13.

According to Dr. Navaratne, there was an increase of 5,609 students over that of the previous year.

The Secretary said that they had submitted a detailed report on the leadership training programme to the Vice Chancellors and Faculty Boards of universities countrywide and obtained their opinion.

"We made several changes in this year’s programme according to the comments of VCs," Dr. Navaratne said.